Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as "a likable, down-to-earth, cerebral sleuth," forensics professor Gideon Oliver returns in this 17th outing in the Edgar Award–winning series, this time visiting friends in Tuscany, where he is asked to re-examine the remains of a mysterious family tragedy. Pietro Cubbiddu, former patriarch of the Villa Antica wine empire, is thought to have killed his wife and then himself in the remote mountains of the Apennines. It does not take long for Gideon to deduce that, whatever happened, a murder-suicide it was not—and soon Gideon finds himself in a morass of family antipathies, conflicts, and mistrust, to say nothing of the local authority's resentment.

"Another delicious blend of forensic science and a to-die-for setting.... The family turns out to be as tricky as the Borgias, and the motives for murder elbow each other for precedence. Much about wine, Florence, forensics, and evil. Great bouquet."—Booklist (starred review)